Kobra's Project E30 Touring

[Kobra 180]

I came across a solid deal on a purple tag steering rack from an E46 compact, so I picked it up.


This rack will swap directly with the E36 rack that I already had, so the install was a breeze. I wanted to redo the high pressure power steering line to move it away from where the exhaust would need to go. I ordered some AN fittings and some hose to make a custom solution.

I got the system back together, but something wasn't right with the power steering. The system was no longer providing much assist, and seemed to lag behind the steering wheel input. No leaks were found. Will have to investigate further.

It was time to move house once again. I'll miss having a nice warm dry garage to hide from the weather in. 

Edited June 20, 2019 by Kobra
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[Kobra 180]

The project went on hold for a few months while I settled into the new place.

The touring was able to drive around under it's own power, but the power steering system was still not happy. At first I assumed the new purple tag rack was damaged, so I swap the E36 rack back in, but the problem persisted. Then I tried using the original high pressure hose that I had bent to work. That didn't work either. I was starting to run out of ideas.

Meanwhile, I'd managed to piece together the bits I needed to build the differential setup I wanted.
A 2.93 gearset and LSD center were assembled into an E30 medium case housing.
This should pair nicely with the 1:1 ratio 5th gear in the ZF 5 speed gearbox. Looking at around 2600rpm at 100kph which, if my 328i E36 is anything to go by, should result in pretty good fuel economy.

I gave the case a good clean and fresh coat of paint.

Paint drying by the heater.

The new diff is good to go, so yanked the stock 4.44 small case from the touring. Interesting to compare them side-by-side.

Diff about to go in.

Edited June 20, 2019 by Kobra
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[Kobra 180]

With the differential taken care of, I decided to dig deeper into the power steering issue.

A forum member suggested there could be a restriction in a system somewhere. The banjo bolts from the purple tag rack came with what seemed like check valves built into them. I tried swapping them for the regular banjo bolts from the E36 rack, but that was not the issue.  

At this point, the only part I hadn't swapped was the p/s pump itself. I had also noticed a squealing noise from alternator when the car was just idling (even just with chopped headers for an exhaust). Upon removing the alternator to get at the power steering pump, I realised it's bearings were rooted. I guess the water had finally taken it's toll on the engine's auxiliaries.
Luckily I found replacements for both parts from a local BMW enthusiast - Thanks Arron


These were swiftly bolted bolted into the car along with the purple tag rack and custom high pressure hose. Once I got the belt on, filled the p/s system with fluid, and bled the p/s system, I started the car. The squeal was gone, and the power steering was working nicely again!

[Kobra 180]

Now it was time make some progress with the exhaust situation.

A few months prior, I purchased a used custom twin pipe exhaust system from a local. The problem was that it built for an E30 with an M20. A friend was looking for an exhaust for an E30 325i, and it was a bolt-on solution, so sold the exhaust to them.

The plan at this point was to build my own stainless exhaust system. After many hours of youtube videos about TIG, I picked up a used welder and some equipment to get stuck in. After I'd played around with some simple test pieces, I decided to get started on the exhaust.

I chose to do a 2.5" single pipe system. The factory M52 exhaust manifolds would be modified to accept V-band flanges. A 2-into-1 section would be formed to merge both 2" pipes into a single 2.5" pipe with another flange. The rest of the system would be a single piece consisting of a flexible section, a resonator in the middle, and then a muffler at the back.

I ordered a Vibrant muffler and resonator. I also picked up some 304 stainless pipes and mandrel bends.

With only having weekends and some evening, it was going to take several weeks to complete. I found a semi-permanent spot for the touring to sit while I worked on the exhaust.

I didn't get a great deal of photos of this process as I was still a complete amateur at TIG, and I was focusing on learning how to weld. Here is what I did get.

Steering joint clearance could be better, but it's not terrible.

Complete system mocked up with zip ties for support.

Sound check.

I'm quite happy with the result  

Added some mounts to system.

Modified factory mounts to bolt onto the muffler.

I also added an extra flexi joint in the merge section to allow for differential movement due to thermal expansion.


Got it all installed, and finally back on the ground again.

And with that, the exhaust is done...mostly. I warped one of the v-band flanges during welding, and this has resulted in a mild leak. I will need to get the mating faces flattened off at some point.

Edited June 22, 2019 by Kobra
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[Kobra 180]

After that, things went on hold for a few months while I tried to figure out what I wanted to do for wheels. 

A little while ago, I picked up a 5 lug adapter kit from a r3vlimited user. I was planning to use it on the coupe, but then abandoned that idea when I got a front RX7 brake kit (designed for the factory 4 lug).

Well, I was still hoping to use the RX7 brakes on the touring with the TRM C1 wheels. But that would require spacers (nope), or chopping the front struts up and having the coilover sleeve shortened and welded lower down. That seemed like a lot of work.

So a few weeks ago, I decided to do a 5 Lug conversion on the touring. The front would be done with the adapter kit, standard E36 front wheel bearing/hub, E36 328i rotors and calipers. The rear would be done with trailing arms from a 318ti, and potentially E34 brakes at some point.

Remember those 16" Style 5 wheels I picked a while back? They're going on the touring.  

Freshly wrapped in some Michelin rubber. That is some good motivation right there.

The touring had been sitting under a cover for a few months. Time to get it airborne again.

I had already managed to source the parts I needed for the front end, so I jumped on that first. The E30 front brakes and hubs all came off without an issue. I mocked up the hub adapter with the E36 hubs, Things fit nicely.


I slapped a used 328i rotor on and got a wheel bolted on to check for fitment.

Not too shabby.

The main nut of the hub adapter doesn't have a locking tap like the factory setup. Instead, it uses a left hand threaded locking nut. This requires a thread on the inside of the end of the spindle. This is done with a left hand M16x1.5 thread. Quite and annoying size to find. 

Ready to go with the caliper adapter.

New rotors with some EBC greenstuff pads.

All bolted up. Here you can see the L/H locking bolt.

Not bad.

So this is basically where I am at the moment.
I'm still waiting on trailing arms to do the rear end 5 lug. I'm going to drop the whole rear subframe, clean it up, and then paint it. Then I'll rebuild it with the 318ti arms, some poly bushings and new stainless brake lines.

If anyone around Christchurch has some E36 318ti compact rear suspension available, I'm interested.

That's it for the massive post dump.  

Peace.

Edited June 21, 2019 by Kobra
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[Gaz 1061]

Nice work bro, good to see some mint e30s in Christchruch again

[Kobra 180]

Unfortunately, the engine in a friends car just blew.
The good news is that this car happens to be an e36 318ti, and he just wants it gone.

Looks like I've just found a parts car.

Hopefully picking up tomorrow.

[Kobra 180]

So we picked up the parts compact.

I'm only interested in the trailing arms, so I don't care what happens to the rest. 

Someone is interested in the car as the body is straight, it's still registered, and they have a damaged car with a good engine. Have worked out a deal to give the car to him in exchange for the trailing arms from his other car. 

Meanwhile, I made some progress by pulling out the rear sub-frame from the touring.

Diff and axles removed.

Trailing arms off.

Embracing fire to remove the worst of the sub-frame bushings.

Should be able to remove the remaining metal ring of the bushings with a hacksaw.
Once that's done, I'll clean it up, give it a new coat of paint, and install some poly bushes.

That's it for this update.

Edited July 10, 2019 by Kobra

[Kobra 180]

Well, I've been busy over the last couple of months. Big picture dump incoming.

Got some powerflex poly bushings a while back.

FInally got the 318ti trailing arms from a donor car. 

Started stripping both sets of arms down.

Here you can see the hub offset difference.

Time for cleaning.

As it turned out, both wheel bearings were gone. New bearings went in.

Ready to paint.

Painted.

[Kobra 180]

Cleaning up the brakes.

Applied a rubberized underbody coating to the trailing arms and subframe. The can said apply a thick coat, I possibly went too thick...

New brake lines install in the front.

Getting ready to reassemble.

I didn't get many shots of reassembly.

 

[Kobra 180]

Moved into position, ready to install into the car.

A new day, time to install the rear-end.

And just like that...

Driveshaft, brakes lines, and handbrake cables were all reinstalled.

Testing fitting a wheel.

Exhaust heat shields in.

[Kobra 180]

That brings us to this weekend. A few things left before I can put it back on the ground.

The front control arm bushes were upgraded. Had some trouble getting one of the front bushings off the control arm.

Lollipops cleaned up, painted, with Powerflex bushes pressed in.

They were quickly bolted back into the car along with the exhaust.

The brakes were bled and the wheels went on.
Finally ready to drop back on the ground.  

Looking good! I am very happy with how well the 16x7 et20 style 5s fit.

The front and rear will need to be lowered some more. The front is still on the 6kg spring that comes with the BC Gold kit. The rear sits a bit higher now as I got higher rate, 8kg spring to help support the extra weight of the touring rear.

The fenders will all need rolling, but that's a job for another weekend.

Stoked!

Edited September 9, 2019 by Kobra

[Kobra 180]

So the engine is running a little rough after sitting for a while. High idle when cold, and it seemed to have a bit of a miss.

I hooked up my laptop with INPA to figure out what was going on, and found several fault codes.

• The cam position sensor seems to have gone bad.
• And the VANOS appears to be jammed.
• Possible O2 sensor fault code, but didn't come back after running for a while.

The cam sensor is not a biggie. I picked up a new one and installed it earlier today. Code was immediate gone, and so was the high idle.

The car is still idling rough a seems like it's down a cylinder or 2 at times. My theory is that this could be caused by the vanos being stuck in the advanced position.
When I reassembled the intake vanos timing chain sprocket, the timing did not want to move very easily. I wasn't sure if it was going to be an issue, so I left it. I probably should have sorted out the issue at the time, because now It's clearly an issue. Anyway, I've ordered some replacement parts, so hopefully I can get it sorted in a couple weeks.

Meanwhile, I may have to do some work on the exhaust to gain more clearance to the lower steering joint. I'll also need to roll the wheel arches, and adjust the suspension to drop it down more.
 

[zero 1162]

Looks fantastic.

How does it feel to drive now you've put all the goodies on?

[Kobra 180]

I'm pretty stoked, but there are still a few things to worry about. The differential makes a whiny sound when coasting.
I think it wasn't put back together properly, and the input shaft bearing/crush sleeve isn't right.

I'm very excited to get all the kinks worked out, and get it back on the road. I wouldn't mind going to the E30 Mega meet this year.  

[Gaz 1061]

1 hour ago, Kobra said:

I'm very excited to get all the kinks worked out, and get it back on the road. I wouldn't mind going to the E30 Mega meet this year.  

Do it! Great drive and weekend away, have done it twice, unlikely to make it this year myself sadly

[Kobra 180]

Managed to source a set of sedan sports seats which should arrive in a few days.

They're a bit worse for wear, and will certainly require recovering.

I've read a few good reviews about the E30 replacement covers sold by LSeat.com, and the price was far cheaper than paying for someone local to do a custom job.
https://www.lseat.com/products/1984-1991-bmw-e30-sport-325-318-custom-real-leather-seat-covers-front.html

I decided to go with a nice dark red leather with diamond stitching for the fronts. Sadly (but not unsurprisingly), they don't have any options for the split rear seats of the E30 Touring.
So for now, I'll just do the fronts. If I'm happy with how the front seats turn out, I'll order some more leather in the same color, and take the rear seats to a local upholster to complete the look.

I've got this coming week off, so I'm going to try get as many of the remaining jobs sorted as I can.

Looking forward to making some more progress.

Edited November 14, 2019 by Kobra

[Kobra 180]

I haven't updated in a while, but I've still been tinkering away making some progress.

The car is unfortunately positioned under a tree that also seems to be a popular toilet for the local avian fauna. I picked up a gazebo in an attempt to help shield the car. Since I need to do some more work on things, the car went back up on axle stands.

The first task on my list was to finish the cooling system. The radiator needs a fan. Ideally, an electric fan using the factory wiring. However, my non-air conditioned e30 didn't leave the factory with an electric fan at all. The fusebox just has a couple of empty spots where the fan relays and fuses should be. This means I have add the wiring myself.

I got the biggest fan I could fit.

Created a custom wiring loom using an E36 2 stage thermoswitch, and a big ass resistor for the low speed.

The loom was run around the left side of the engine bay and into the fusebox. With a bit of fiddling, I was able to connect wiring to factory locations, and add the required fuses and relays.

Radiator back in the car with new fan

 

I refilled the cooling system, and tested everything. Both low speed and high speed are working nicely. 

Edited November 14, 2019 by Kobra

[Kobra 180]

The replacement parts for the vanos arrived from germany after a few weeks on backorder. They went in without much trouble.

With everything back together, I started the engine, and tested the vanos by revving it past the switching threshold. This time INPA wasn't showing any error codes for vanos. 

I'm glad that was a relatively easy fix. Onto the next thing.

Edited November 14, 2019 by Kobra

[Kobra 180]

I wasn't happy with the front exhaust manifold to steering linkage clearance. I removed the exhaust system once again to do some more chopping and welding. This is the result.

Much more clearance. 

I'm quite happy with how that turned out.

[Kobra 180]

The sport seats had arrived, and just needed to be recovered before I could put them in the car.

As soon as the leather upholstery kit was delivered, I dived straight into the first seat.

Many zipties were used...

Some foam was repaired on the side bolster.

The next seat was for the driver side. This one had taken a bit more abuse, and needed some more serious foam repair.

The rest of the second seat was the same as the first.

The seat rails were cleaned up and repainted.

Both seats mostly back together. I still need to do some work on the back covers.

I'm stoked with the result. I think they look great, although I may still need to tweak fitment in a few places. Quite happy with the quality of the leather kit, especially for the relatively low price.

Edited November 14, 2019 by Kobra

[Kobra 180]

The O2 sensors were still original, and were very old and rusty. One of them finally died, so I picked up a couple of replacements.

I also found out that the interior blower fan refused to function, and had seized in it's bearings

Brand new units are fairly spendy, so located a used replacement locally. The replacement fan was installed, and the blower is now working again...but only on the top speed. Argh, that means the fan resistor is dead now too. 

Two steps forward, one step back. Such is life.

[Cammsport 390]

Those seats look so good! Do you have a link for the kit? 

[nick496 268]

They look great. What did you do to repair the foam? 

[Kobra 180]

Thanks guys.

This is the kit I got. I chose dark red for both colour options.
https://www.lseat.com/products/1984-1991-bmw-e30-sport-325-318-custom-real-leather-seat-covers-front.html

For the foam repair, I got a piece of "firmish" density foam (similar to OEM), as well as a thin soft foam. Both from Para Rubber.
I removed the worst of the crumbling original foam, and then cut a few pieces to fill in the missing parts/holes. 
Using some spray on contact adhesive, I glued the replacement pieces in. 
For the lower side bolster, I added some extra bits to help deal with some extra abuse.
The upper side bolster was shaped with bastard file (aggressive enough to wear away at the foam), but I've seen cheese graters used as well.
Once the main pieces are shaped nicely, I covered them with a layer of the thin foam to smooth out the top surface.

With the leather pulled over the bolsters, I could not notice any evidence of foam repair. 

I should also mention that I used a clothing steamer to rejuvenate the original foam.  The steam caused the foam to expand a surprising amount. I would highly recommend doing this.

Edited November 17, 2019 by Kobra